Midwest Farmers Check Diesel Prices, Not Chip Prices

AMES, Iowa (Farm.fm) — News that Chinese AI stocks had lost $480 billion in four months reached the coffee table at the Story County grain elevator at 6:40 Tuesday morning, where it was received about the way a report of light rain in Nebraska would be.

Reuters reported that the STAR 50 index of Chinese AI and semiconductor companies has dropped 40 percent in under four months. Wade Dunmire, 61, who farms 1,900 acres of corn and soybeans west of town, asked how many bushels that was.

At $4.10 corn, the figure comes to roughly 117 billion bushels, or about seven times a full American corn crop. Dunmire said that was a lot of corn to lose track of, and asked who had been driving the truck.

What the STAR 50 Selloff Means for Rural America

The index still trades at around 100 times earnings, down from nearly 250 at its peak. Dunmire said the most he ever paid for anything was about six times what it earned, and that was a used planter, and the planter was in better shape.

Bank officers in central Iowa say no lender in the county would write a note on those numbers. A loan officer at a community bank in Nevada, Iowa, who asked to be identified only as Rhonda, said she had once declined an operating loan to a man who wanted to buy a combine with a mortgage on his pickup. “I’d approve him tomorrow before I’d look at a hundred times earnings,” she said.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City tracks farm credit conditions across the region. Farmers say the report is the only chart they read twice.

Text Messages, Wade and Carol

Unitree’s Robots and the Tractors That Still Run on Diesel

Robot maker Unitree has seen its shares halve since its August listing. The company builds humanoid and four-legged robots, and a video of one doing a backflip circulated at the elevator on Wednesday.

Dunmire watched it twice. “That’s real good,” he said. “Can it stand in a field at two in the morning in April and tell me if the ground’s fit?”

Nobody at the table knew. Precision agriculture is already part of the operation on most of the farms represented. GPS steers the planter, a monitor counts seeds and a satellite photographs the beans. Farmers pointed out that none of the equipment dances, and all of it comes with a dealer who will answer the phone.

Silicon Valley Says American AI Is Different; the Co-Op Says Corn Is Corn

Goldman Sachs calculated that AI-linked stocks represent 42 percent of China’s stock market value. Farmers in the area said that was more than any single crop they had ever seen on one farm, and that the extension office would have a word to say about it.

American technology executives have maintained that the Chinese selloff has no bearing on the American AI industry, which is a paradigm shift. Older farmers recall hearing the same assurance in the early 1980s, when land prices were a paradigm shift for several years and then were not. Others pointed to the dot-com crash, which Doris Hanley, 73, remembered mostly because her nephew lost his truck.

The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service reports corn yields every fall, and the numbers have not once required anyone to say the words “this time is different.”

Insurance Claim Form, Section 4

Lost and Found Notice, Co-Op Coffee Table

Why Farmers Aren’t Rattled by the AI Selloff

Futurism noted that China faces its own pressures, including export restrictions and weak demand, and that its stock collapse does not prove American AI shares must follow. The elevator crowd agreed with the second half. A man can have a good idea and still pay too much for it, they said, and most of them had bought a piece of equipment that way at least once.

By 7:15 the conversation had moved to soybean basis. Dunmire finished his coffee, put the cup on the table and asked if anyone knew what time the co-op opened.

Co-Op Newsletter, Reminders

What the Funny People Are Saying…

Roper Penberthy, a stand-up comedian playing comedy clubs across America’s agricultural heartland, found the AI selloff particularly entertaining. “Wall Street lost $480 billion on artificial intelligence. Hell, farmers have been losing money with natural stupidity for generations. At least farmers know who’s responsible. Usually it’s the government.”

Vivienne Pratfall, a stand-up comedian entertaining audiences on the Midwest comedy-club circuit, questioned Silicon Valley’s agricultural ambitions. “They built a $100,000 robot that can do a backflip. Wonderful. My uncle’s farmhand can fall off a tractor for free, swear for twenty minutes, and still get the bloody thing running.”

Morag Sinclair, a stand-up comedian performing in comedy clubs across the American heartland, had a warning for the technology industry. “Give that robot 2,000 acres, a broken combine, $300,000 in debt, and a wife asking why they’re still farming. By Thursday it’ll unplug itself and apply for a government job. Better benefits, less manure.”

Siobhan O’Donnell, an Irish stand-up comedian bringing her act to farming communities throughout the Midwest, thought the market panic was ridiculous. “Chinese AI stocks dropped 40 percent? Farmers call that a decent year. If an Iowa farmer only lost 40 percent of his money, he’d buy his banker dinner. The banker would order lobster. He’s already got the farm.”

Five Observations

1. Four hundred eighty billion dollars. You know what I could do with that? Me neither. I farm. I can’t picture anything past a quarter section.
2. Silicon Valley says their bubble’s different. Corn’s been the same forever and it still goes up and down. Nobody calls corn “a paradigm shift.” Corn doesn’t need a conference.
3. That robot’s got a backflip. I’ve got a dog that does a backflip. Cost me nothing, and he’ll herd cattle if he’s in the mood.
4. A hundred times earnings. I farm. If I got a hundred times my earnings I wouldn’t be happy, I’d call the IRS and tell them somebody made a mistake.
5. The chatbot says it understands. You know who else says that? My banker.

Last Updated on October 30, 2026 by Alan Nafzger